Global Health Track: Book Fund

Residency Book Fund for Malawian and Mozambican Medical Students

During their international rotation, a few residents were greatly inspired by the dedication and resolve of the medical students from the Catholic University of Mozambique (UCM, for its initials in Portuguese) in Beira, Mozambique, many of whom came from very humble backgrounds and attended the university on full scholarship. Due to financial circumstances as well as limited availability, many of these medical students could not afford textbooks. They were enthralled with the residents’ copies of the Oxford Handbook of Tropical Medicine. They considered these to be particularly useful as many of them planned to practice independently in rural areas after graduation, with limited access to other resources. Thus, the idea of a book fund was born!

In 2015, residents and faculty from the Global Health and Underserved Populations Track (GHUP) raised approximately $800 and donated one Oxford Handbook of Tropical medicine to each of the 32 members of the graduating Catholic University of Mozambique class.

The following year, a recurrent book donation was established as a yearly spring service project for the entire internal medicine residency, and a total of $1075 was raised to buy books for the Malawian and Mozambican medical students.

Since then, GHUP residents and alumni have contributed toward quality improvement and research projects for interns and registrars at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH). A GoFundMe was also created to help KCH nurses with tuition assistance for advanced nursing degree programs within Malawi.

If you are interested in donating to this recurrent book fund, please email Thuy Bui at buit@upmc.edu.